The 19th annual Pines Party, benefiting the Pines Foundation and the Stonewall Foundation, took place during the weekend of July 21 to 23, and the centerpiece, on the 22nd, was the huge, lavish Labyrinth party, on the beach at the easternmost end of Fire Island Pines, featuring music by DJs Ralphi Rosario and Tom Stephan.
The Labyrinth, in Greek mythology, was an elaborate maze, designed by Daedalus, for King Minos of Crete, at Knossos. In revenge for the death of his son Androgeos, Minos compelled Athenians to choose 14 noble youths, seven men and seven women, to be sacrificed to the ferocious Minotaur, with a man’s body and a bull’s head, who lived in the Labyrinth. The sacrifices ended when the hero Theseus slew the Minotaur, aided by Minos’ daughter, the princess/priestess/goddess Ariadne, who gave Theseus a sword and a ball of thread, so that he could find his way out of the maze, before he took her to and abandoned her on Naxos.
Pines Partygoers entered through a maze, VIPS wore bull’s heads on chains around their necks, and numerous revelers donned horns—bull’s horns, ram’s horns, or devil’s horns—and costumes of antiquity for the event. The rain poured on for hours, which dampened costumes, if not spirits, and did not prevent a capacity crowd from taking to the dance floor.
I would be remiss were I not to mention those whom it took to get me to, into, and from the party: Co-Chair Allan Baum, Committee member Hal Hayes, Doreen Katen, Will-Call ticketer Marc Coté, Mr. Fire Island Leather 2017 Sir Joseph, MAC Mobility Cart driver Kent C. Dillon, and escorting each other home to the Grove for a second year, my dear Porsche.